.alac
Audio
ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec)
ALAC is Apple's lossless audio codec that compresses audio to about 60% of original size with no quality loss. It is supported natively on all Apple devices and is an alternative to FLAC for lossless music playback in the Apple ecosystem.
MIME Type
audio/x-alac
Type
Binary
Compression
Lossless
Advantages
- + Lossless compression with native Apple device support
- + Integrated with iTunes, Apple Music, and AirPlay
- + Open source since 2011
Disadvantages
- − Slightly worse compression ratio than FLAC
- − Limited support on non-Apple devices
- − Smaller community and fewer tools than FLAC
When to Use .ALAC
Use ALAC for lossless music on Apple devices; use FLAC for cross-platform lossless audio.
Technical Details
ALAC uses linear prediction and adaptive Rice coding within an M4A (MPEG-4) container. It supports up to 32-bit/384 kHz audio and multichannel surround sound.
History
Apple introduced ALAC in 2004 with iTunes 4.5. It remained proprietary until 2011, when Apple released the codec as open source under the Apache License 2.0.